The Keeper of Secrets - 2
Poverty was rife, especially amongst the sort of people Tobias would have as parishioners. Education was haphazard. Medicine was all too often inspired guesswork. The role of women was equivocal: certainly they weren't as trammelled and trapped as they were in Victoria's reign, but if I wanted a protagonist with social and indeed geographical mobility it had to be a man.
Religion, though not in one of its more intense phases, was the base-rock on which life was founded, so it was natural for me to ask Tobias to take holy orders. He was happy to. Damaged by something in his past - was it as sin of omission or commission? - he is estranged from his family and determined to earn a living. Already he has to compromise. He has accepted a living from a very rich relative, Lady Elham, but he quickly offends her by preaching against the vested interests of landowners, counselling generosity, not just lip-service charity, to the poor.
At first lonely in his new parish, he makes friends with the village doctor, a man with his own secrets and with his cousin's housekeeper. Jem, his groom, becomes not just his henchman but his moral guide.
I don't think I have ever enjoyed writing a book more than this. True, the language was a challenge, and time and again I'd have loved my characters to be able to make a quick phone call or leap into a powerful car. But I really felt I was living amongst friends. I hope you enjoy making their acquaintance too.
